Ginnie Hart - Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands

In my  60s now, life appears to have come back around full circle in the timing and invitation of these two simple words:  Vision and Verb.  It’s a longer story than this, of course, but….

I was born #3 of 8 kids to a preacher in Michigan who understood Verb and a mother who, as an English teacher and musician, lived it.  I graduated from the University of Michigan in 1967 with a degree in Linguistics because I wanted to work with indigenous languages that had not yet been written.  I did that for awhile in Peru, back before I was married.  Verb.

Once married, I worked with my husband for 16 years in a ministry to college students, teaching them how to interpret ancient texts from the Bible through inductive reasoning in the context of culture and history.  During the time when fundamentalist women struggled with whether their holy scriptures allowed them to preach or not, I was privileged to do widespread seminars on Women and the Church in both California and Wisconsin.  Verb.

Then the marriage of 21 years crumbled when it became clear I was gay, always had been, and was living in 2 worlds, not knowing how to reconcile Verb with the truth of who I was/am.  Coming from a conservative preacher’s home did not help me.  Garbage in, garbage out…a process on which I’m still working, with God still as bedrock. The good of it was 2 wonderful children, who are now grown, and a delightful grandson, who continues to grow before my very eyes.

That transition to living as a gay woman, beginning in 1990, opened me up to Vision:  Vision of not only who I am but who I could be in living my Truth.  It meant living through several relationships before finding my Dutch partner here in the Netherlands through my photography blog at Shutterchance.  And thus my move from the USA to Holland in early December, 2009, to pursue marriage in a country that recognizes it!  Vision.  The word/Verb becoming flesh.

As in life, I’m an amateur photographer who learns by observing and then doing.  My camera is a DSLR Canon with good lenses, but it’s still Vision that makes or breaks me.  Photoshop helps me bring the Vision to close approximation of what I see in my artistic mind.  The rest is just trying to figure it all out…flying by the seat of my pants.

Verb and Vision.  Vision and Verb.  I really like the Journey this is and want to embrace it with open arms!  We’re all kids at heart, never too old to learn, right?